Everyone loves power tools, whether cordless or corded. Cordless tools can use brushed or brushless DC (BLDC) motors . But, brushless motors are more efficient and have less maintenance, low noise and a longer life. In this two-part blog series, we will first discuss the basics of thermal design for three-phase motor drives used in these power tools, then the options available for your design.
Power tools have stringent...

Many times in life we are met with challenges that seem to come all at once. In emergency rooms, they use terms like “triage” where degrees of urgency are assigned to individual patients to determine the necessary order of care. For example, someone attacked by a grizzly bear gets treated before the child with a sore throat. Makes perfect sense, right?
As a circuit designer, we are met with similar challenges...

The number of different motors in the world is mind boggling. We showed you some of the more exotic ones in a previous post , but this barely scratches the surface.
Whatever your motor type, we want you to get your motor up and running without all the fuss of complicated motor system design. Although we can’t cover every motor out there, we are doing our best to catch the majority. One of the ways we have been...

In part I and part II of this blog series, we talked about ‘blind’ startup of a motor, which is an easy approach but has certain limitations. If the application can’t accept the blades going back and forth (as in ceiling or pedestal fans) or reverse spinning is prohibited (for example HDD motor or VCM), you should consider initial position detection (IPD).
IPD is the method to detect the motor position...

In part 1 of this series, we discussed how to correctly select the control voltage for an IGBT. This time, you’ll learn more about the isolation requirements and how to calculate the correct IGBT drive power.
For any industrial motor dri...

Guest post by Adam Reynolds, Application Engineer, LineStream technologies
Have you wondered how to design real-time velocity and position control applications? In this blog post, we’re going to show you, step by step, how to achieve opt...

3-D printing technology has exploded over the last few years! It seems as if every other day you are hearing a new story where 3-D printing is taking the lead. Just recently, I read about the first 3-D printer in space. NASA hopes that 3-D printing w...

Motors are found almost everywhere in our daily life. If you take a look inside a common home appliance, like a refrigerator, you’ll find some fancy applications of stepper and BLDC motors, the damper and the BLDC fan. These play very important...

In Part I of this blog series , we talked about ‘blind’ startup . ‘Blind’ startup is a very practical method to spin up the motor, especially for those applications where load conditions are predictable. However, in order to ...

Many of us are familiar with low-power DC motors because we see them everywhere in our daily lives. What we may not see are all the larger AC industrial motors working behind the scenes to automate the assembly of our automobiles or to lift the elevators we ride every day. These high-power motors are driven by electronics with very different requirements and with much higher current. In part 1 of this blog, we will discuss...

In case you missed it, the recording is posted here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/5327060532403852546 . (Note: you may need to install the codec and use Windows Media Player to open the .asx video.)
----------------------------------- Lad...

In our fast-paced world, there are many times we are tasked with having to make something work but don’t have time to learn the theory behind it. It’s important that it works but not as important why. This allows us to move on to the next task. In modern stepper motor drivers, tuning the motor for optimal current regulation can be one of those situations.
Recently, I’ve been asked why a stepper motor...

In the world of motors, drive stage damage due to over-voltage is an all too common event. Although not the only cause of over-voltage failures, supply pumping is by far the most prevalent. Supply pumping occurs when energy from the motor is returned to the supply, causing the supply voltage to temporarily increase. If the voltage increase is significant, over-voltage stressing of the drive stage occurs, either destroying...

Sensor-less BLDC motors are becoming more popular. But quick, reliable start up is a challenge as many system designers have already discovered. The most difficult design challenge is the startup from zero speed since almost every sensor-less solution relies on back electromotive force (BEMF) detection to achieve the position estimation. BEMF is proportional to motor speed, which is zero before startup. As a result, you...

By Karl-Heinz Steinmetz
I recently discussed my belief that the world is in the fourth industrial revolution, due to the rise of “smart” factories in a blog and white paper . You might wonder as factories become smarter using sensing, haptics and the Internet of Things (IoT) how it affects motors in factories.
In just a few years, intelligent sensors, motors, robots and other equipment will transform...

Creating a drive system for three-phase brushless DC (BLDC) motors has always been a task of balancing a handful of system requirements. Care-abouts such as efficiency, reliability, development time, protection, acoustic noise and cost have always been and are key driving factors for decisions on part selection. A sensorless, BLDC motor controller could help put your worries at ease.
In a previous post, Milan Rajne...

Have you ever imagined that three-phase BLDC motor control solution development could be as easy as building an application circuit using analog ICs, adding a few discrete passive components and the task is done? Is there a solution that removes the burden of complicated motor control software development?
In order to answer these questions, let’s first take a deep dive and virtually build a system block diagram...

Increasing energy efficiency in everyday products can create a big impact on both the environment and your wallet. One of our customers, Contronics, has found a way to utilize efficient motor control in their products to cut energy consumption and help contribute toward building a better planet. The company’s solutions have drastically cut energy usage on a sustainable pig farm in the Netherlands, and its secret...

e-Traction , a company that develops powertrain technology for electric vehicles based on direct drive synchronous in-wheel motors, C2000™ Piccolo™ microcontrollers (MCUs) and InstaSPIN-FOC ™ motor control technology, is creating electric drives and electronics for those drives in forklift trucks, small vehicles, boats, buses and small trains to make driving more efficient. e-Traction hopes its technology...

Sometimes, the right motor for the system doesn’t exist yet. It starts as an idea, and undergoes a lengthy process of refinement, CAD creation, simulation, prototyping, testing, and then reworking. But when the need arises, engineers have demonstrated admirable aptitude for redesigning electric motors.
#15 – Raser Technologies P-50
In 2006 Raser Technologies designed this highly efficient 300V...

Technology evolves quickly. I may be pointing out the obvious, but this simple fact can cause many headaches when you are constantly trying to keep up with the changing landscape by using new components on a regular basis. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to stumble across a product family with a proven track record of performance, integration and long-term support that you could use in your designs for years to come?...

Wow! What a fantastic motor Twitter chat we had yesterday! Thank you to all who joined and participated for your feedback and questions! Dave and I both had a great time getting to engage with you on Twitter. We liked seeing how you are using motors and enjoyed trying our best to answer all your motor questions!
In case you missed the chat, get the complete recap below or see the chat on Twitter using #TImotorHr !...

Most people don’t realize just how vast the field of motor control is. In fact, when you think about it, motor control is the biggest sandbox in engineering! It encompasses field theory, analog design, digital design, control theory, filter design, digital signal processing, power electronics, sensor design, EMI, heat transfer, mechanical dynamics, and embedded software engineering, all rolled up into one package...

Summer is a great time to get outside and enjoy the warm temperatures on your bike. Whether your summer plans involve racing down the streets of Paris or simply taking a leisurely ride around the block, bicycles with integrated electric motors allow for easier mobility by giving you the boost you need to conquer every hill and headwind.
The market for electric bicycles (e-bikes) has expanded rapidly over the past...

Have you heard about TI’s family of Hall effect sensors? The first four stars are here: DRV5013, DRV5023, DRV5033 and DRV5053 .
We are all curious what star roles these new parts will play. One of the more famous roles of the Hall sensor is to co-star with the BLDC motor as the sensors of the electronic commutator. But the Hall sensor is truly a versatile actor. There are so many other leading roles for the Hall...

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